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Seven countries signed a treaty binding each of them to [#permalink]
19 Jan 2010, 08:42

2

This post wasBOOKMARKED

00:00

A

B

C

D

E

Difficulty:

(N/A)

Question Stats:

47%(02:23) correct
53%(02:08) wrong based on 106 sessions

Seven countries signed a treaty binding each of them to perform specified actions on a certain fixed date, with the actions of each conditional on simultaneous action taken by the other countries. Each country was also to notify the six other countries when it had completed its action.The simultaneous-action provision of the treaty leaves open the possibility that(A) the compliance date was subject to postponement, according to the terms of the treaty(B) one of the countries might not be required to make any changes or take any steps in order to comply with the treaty, whereas all the other countries are so required(C) each country might have a well-founded excuse, based on the provision, for its own lack of compliance(D) the treaty specified that the signal for one of the countries to initiate action was notification by the other countries that they had completed action(E) there was ambiguity with respect to the date after which all actions contemplated in the treaty are to be complete _________________

I do not have to comply to treaty unless other countries do the same. But how can I know that? Treaty specifies that the notification is to be sent only after completion of the action. It's most probable that everyone will simply wait for others to take action

Seven countries signed a treaty binding each of them to perform specified actions on a certain fixed date, with the actions of each conditional on simultaneous action taken by the other countries. Each country was also to notify the six other countries when it had completed its action.The simultaneous-action provision of the treaty leaves open the possibility that(A) the compliance date was subject to postponement, according to the terms of the treaty - No issues with this as the treaty doesn't give any specific deadlines. Hence postponement is not an open item

(B) one of the countries might not be required to make any changes or take any steps in order to comply with the treaty, whereas all the other countries are so required - The stem clearly states that each country is bound a specific action and hence this makes this point invalid.

(C) each country might have a well-founded excuse, based on the provision, for its own lack of compliance - Correct. Reason, treaty has nothing about the clause if a certain country is not able to do the action due to some excuse, what should the dependent country do? Hence all the countries would keep on waiting for the notification.

(D) the treaty specified that the signal for one of the countries to initiate action was notification by the other countries that they had completed actionNope, the treaty talks about the completion of action triggers the next. Hence initiation of one action need not be notified. It's the closure of action which should be notified.

(E) there was ambiguity with respect to the date after which all actions contemplated in the treaty are to be complete[/quote]Again, deadline is not an issue._________________

I couldnt understand this stimulus as no conclusion is present.In the end it asked for open threads and I chose E.As per E - there was ambiguity with respect to the date after which all actions contemplated in the treaty are to be complete.

If one country didnt complete the action onbefore time then it wouldnt intimate other countries and similarly there is slippage in other countries date.

SudiptoGmat wrote:

Seven countries signed a treaty binding each of them to perform specified actions on a certain fixed date, with the actions of each conditional on simultaneous action taken by the other countries. Each country was also to notify the six other countries when it had completed its action.The simultaneous-action provision of the treaty leaves open the possibility that(A) the compliance date was subject to postponement, according to the terms of the treaty(B) one of the countries might not be required to make any changes or take any steps in order to comply with the treaty, whereas all the other countries are so required(C) each country might have a well-founded excuse, based on the provision, for its own lack of compliance(D) the treaty specified that the signal for one of the countries to initiate action was notification by the other countries that they had completed action(E) there was ambiguity with respect to the date after which all actions contemplated in the treaty are to be complete

I couldnt understand this stimulus as no conclusion is present.In the end it asked for open threads and I chose E.As per E - there was ambiguity with respect to the date after which all actions contemplated in the treaty are to be complete.

If one country didnt complete the action onbefore time then it wouldnt intimate other countries and similarly there is slippage in other countries date.

SudiptoGmat wrote:

Seven countries signed a treaty binding each of them to perform specified actions on a certain fixed date, with the actions of each conditional on simultaneous action taken by the other countries. Each country was also to notify the six other countries when it had completed its action.The simultaneous-action provision of the treaty leaves open the possibility that(A) the compliance date was subject to postponement, according to the terms of the treaty(B) one of the countries might not be required to make any changes or take any steps in order to comply with the treaty, whereas all the other countries are so required(C) each country might have a well-founded excuse, based on the provision, for its own lack of compliance(D) the treaty specified that the signal for one of the countries to initiate action was notification by the other countries that they had completed action(E) there was ambiguity with respect to the date after which all actions contemplated in the treaty are to be complete

Ditto the same rreasoning I got and picked E ... actually C & E both kind of a probable one's ... _________________

I couldnt understand this stimulus as no conclusion is present.In the end it asked for open threads and I chose E.As per E - there was ambiguity with respect to the date after which all actions contemplated in the treaty are to be complete.

If one country didnt complete the action onbefore time then it wouldnt intimate other countries and similarly there is slippage in other countries date.

SudiptoGmat wrote:

Seven countries signed a treaty binding each of them to perform specified actions on a certain fixed date, with the actions of each conditional on simultaneous action taken by the other countries. Each country was also to notify the six other countries when it had completed its action.The simultaneous-action provision of the treaty leaves open the possibility that(A) the compliance date was subject to postponement, according to the terms of the treaty(B) one of the countries might not be required to make any changes or take any steps in order to comply with the treaty, whereas all the other countries are so required(C) each country might have a well-founded excuse, based on the provision, for its own lack of compliance(D) the treaty specified that the signal for one of the countries to initiate action was notification by the other countries that they had completed action(E) there was ambiguity with respect to the date after which all actions contemplated in the treaty are to be complete

Ditto the same rreasoning I got and picked E ... actually C & E both kind of a probable one's ...

The reasoning behind C is that the treaty is binding on a country only when actions are taken by other countries but the actions taken are supposed to be simultaneous. For the sake of simplicity, given two countries A and B, you may have the situation where A is waiting for B to take action and B is waiting for A to take action and so actually simultaneous actions can never be performed. So each country can give the excuse that the condition of compliance was not met and hence is not bound by the treaty. _________________

Re: Seven countries signed a treaty binding each of them to [#permalink]
04 Jan 2013, 04:11

Expert's post

SudiptoGmat wrote:

Seven countries signed a treaty binding each of them to perform specified actions on a certain fixed date, with the actions of each conditional on simultaneous action taken by the other countries. Each country was also to notify the six other countries when it had completed its action.The simultaneous-action provision of the treaty leaves open the possibility that(A) the compliance date was subject to postponement, according to the terms of the treaty(B) one of the countries might not be required to make any changes or take any steps in order to comply with the treaty, whereas all the other countries are so required(C) each country might have a well-founded excuse, based on the provision, for its own lack of compliance(D) the treaty specified that the signal for one of the countries to initiate action was notification by the other countries that they had completed action(E) there was ambiguity with respect to the date after which all actions contemplated in the treaty are to be complete

Hi,

As per discussion above, I think everyone agrees with option C as the contender for answer choice; however, some consider option E as the strongest contender and thus the answer choice.

Let's read option E with the question stem:

The simultaneous-action provision of the treaty leaves open the possibility that there was ambiguity with respect to the date after which all actions contemplated in the treaty are to be complete.

Does the ambiguity arise due to the simultaneous provision? The answer is no. This simultaneous provision doesn't bring in any ambiguity with respect to the dates; it only makes it possible that none of the countries would do it since the action of one is contingent on the action of all others.

Seven countries signed a treaty binding each of them to [#permalink]
16 Sep 2014, 09:57

"with the actions of each conditional on simultaneous action taken by the other countries"

I didn't quite understand the stem. Are the actions parallel or in series? I would understand that simultaneous = at the same time. If it otherwise means that one country HAS to wait for another country's notification, then C would make sense to me.

Could any one help me out?

Thanks!

gmatclubot

Seven countries signed a treaty binding each of them to
[#permalink]
16 Sep 2014, 09:57